Built for Canadian-US dual citizen landlords.
Dual citizens who own rental property face two full tax returns every year — a Canadian T1 with T776 and a US 1040 with Schedule E — plus FBAR, FATCA, and potentially PFIC obligations. BorderBird tracks the rental income and exports the clean numbers your cross-border CPA needs for both sides.
Create account, set up forwarding, add a property, add a tenant, forward your first email. Five steps, about a minute each.
Forward your payment and utility-bill emails — one filter, set once — and BorderBird auto-matches each to the right property and tenant, dated and queued for one-click import. It never connects to your inbox.
Years of payments in Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or Apple Mail? Forward them to your private BorderBird address and BorderBird imports them with their original dates.
Upload a signed lease PDF — AI pulls dates, rent, and tenant names. Renewals, vacates, and full tenancy history stay organized.
Your compliance picture
Dual citizens who hold Canadian bank accounts where the aggregate balance exceeds $10,000 USD at any point in the year must file FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) annually with the US Treasury. Rental income sitting in a Canadian account counts toward this threshold. Due April 15 (auto-extended to October 15 with no form required).
US citizens (including dual citizens) must file Form 8938 (Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets) if foreign financial assets exceed $50,000 on the last day of the tax year or $75,000 at any point during the year (thresholds are higher for foreign residents). A Canadian rental property may qualify as a 'specified foreign financial asset' depending on how title is held.
A dual citizen owning a Canadian rental property files T776 with CRA and also reports the same income on Schedule E attached to their US 1040. The same property produces two tax filings in two currencies with two different expense rules. Dual filing is the baseline — every year.
Dual citizens claiming Canadian rental property on their US 1040 use Form 1116 (Foreign Tax Credit) to offset IRS tax with Canadian taxes paid. If Canadian taxes exceed US taxes on the same income, the excess is stranded — not fully recoverable. The treaty prevents full double taxation but not all double taxation.
If a dual citizen holds shares in Canadian mutual funds, ETFs, or certain investment accounts — even indirectly through an RRSP (which has its own treaty protection) — those may qualify as PFICs under IRS rules. PFICs are subject to punitive US tax treatment. Rental income itself is not a PFIC issue, but dual citizens typically discover PFIC exposure through the same cross-border CPA review that handles their rental property.
Dual citizens living in Canada file both a Canadian T1 (with T776 for rental income) and a US 1040 (with Schedule E for rental income). If living in the US, they still file T1 only if they have Canadian-source rental income — which they do if they own a Canadian rental property. Two returns, same data, different forms.
How BorderBird helps dual citizens
- One ledger, two filings. Every rent payment and expense entered once generates a Schedule E CSV (for your 1040) and a T776 export (for your T1) — in the right currency for each filing, at the right official exchange rate.
- Both currencies, correct rates. CRA accepts the Bank of Canada annual average. IRS accepts the Treasury average exchange rate. BorderBird applies the right rate for each jurisdiction automatically — no manual conversion.
- Foreign tax credit data. The year-end export includes Canadian taxes paid (for Form 1116 on your 1040) and US taxes paid (for T2209 on your T1) — the inputs your CPA needs to prevent double taxation.
- FBAR threshold visibility.BorderBird shows your Canadian rental income in USD — helpful for estimating whether your Canadian accounts will cross the $10,000 FBAR threshold. (Actual FBAR filing requires knowing all account balances, not just rental receipts — that's your CPA's job.)
- Email-forwarding rent auto-import. Forward your Interac e-Transfer, Zelle, Venmo, and bank notification emails and they are automatically matched to the right property and lease. Works for both Canadian and US properties.